Such is the Wales coach’s estimation of Pocock, that he has warned a failure to nullify him would be decisive to the outcome of the Test in Cardiff. ‘We have to make sure we do a job on him, because at the moment there’s nobody in the world better than Pocock at winning turnovers at the breakdown,’ Gatland said.

Gits felt like a liability - Matt Giteau feared his poor goalkicking would undermine the Wallabies’ chances of victory.

James O’Connor has been installed as the new punter, with Giteau struggling for consistency all season. ”I still want to stick with it [kicking], because there are times where I hit the ball quite well, but it is inconsistent at the moment,” he said. ”And it’s not the right time to trial it in Test matches, especially when I feel we are making as much progress as we are. It shouldn’t be held back by goal kicking.

‘I will still be practising as hard as I have been when preparing for a match, so if something happens and I’m required to kick, I’m still able to kick. But at the moment I want to get to a position where I am fully confident. If I’m really happy with how I’m hitting the ball, then I’ll put my hand up.’

‘His footwork is so good he very rarely gets wrapped up in the tackle and, because of that, he off-loads a lot,’ Jones said. ‘You very rarely see him die with the ball or go fully into contact with it. He just sees things very early.

‘At the back, we’ve got to make sure we mark as much space as we can. We can’t give this guy big chunks of field to aim at because he will make us pay.’